Rock Bottom and a Little Worse
by artsc
Summary: Beca Mitchell is starring in a new musical on Broadway. The key point? It's about her life. Three years after its smash success, Chloe comes to see the show she unknowingly shaped. Bechloe, T for language.
1. Chapter 1

_This chapter's short, but worry not! Later ones will be longer. A little prep: each chapter after this will be split in two parts. It'll make sense when it happens._

* * *

Chloe browsed the latest tween magazines, occasionally muttering about her made-up little cousin. She would quite literally die of embarrassment of Fat Amy caught her.

That musical was really hitting off with younger kids. But with what Chloe heard of the lyrics in the thousands of TV commercials, there was strong language. Very strong language. It made sense, though. Bootleg recordings and lenient parents were just shy of overabundant.

But Chloe was holding out. It was coming downtown in a year after an extended extended extended run in New York. Two years of waiting and not enough money for a plane ticket nearly killed her, but it was worth it. So worth it.

Even People, Time, and countless other magazines had rave reviews. Not a single picture was found, though. Tight online and print security kept potential audiences intrigued and return audiences smug with in-demand knowledge. It was no problem for Chloe, who made it a point to avoid any and all potential leaks and secrets.

She only knew one thing about the show: it changed the face of Broadway.

Plus, it was something to think about besides living with Fat Amy and having every other friend leave her behind. Since they all left, she spent the money she put aside for her legendary birthday presents for them and bought the soundtrack to every musical she had ever seen. She put the remaining money towards getting tickets. Season tickets, one-time event tickets, movie tickets. Anything to get out of the crappy apartment and to clear her lungs of the stench of vodka and week-old frozen hamburger meat.

Yep, she was living the life.

Not the good life.

Not the decent life.

The crap life.

The shits.

Rock bottom with only a shovel to dig deeper down.

Not to say she did get the occasional text from Aubrey.

_You doing alright?_

_ You okay?_

_ Chloe, answer me._

Like Aubrey even cared any more. After all, she did ruin Chloe's life. In a nutshell, she ruined everything for Chloe.

But Chloe had a special place in her heart for all the hatred she harbored towards one person.

Beca Mitchell.

/

Finally.

Chloe sat in the back row and took a minute to get a good look at the front of her playbill.

The face on it was so familiar.

At least someone was succeeding in life.

The third page had the cast. She saw the name below the first picture, and nearly tore it apart. Then Jesse's name showed up.

Another person living the dream.

But the worst betrayal was Aubrey's name. _Conductor_.

Yeah. Like how she conducted Chloe's life to shit.

The lights dimmed, and the generic female announcement warned everyone to turn off phones and pagers.

It was all okay, Chloe told herself. It was so long ago. She wouldn't make even the slightest impact. But she wanted to see, just to see how little she meant to her.

The worst part was that the impact on her was far greater than she ever wanted to admit.


	2. Chapter 2

_Just some perspective here: first half is Chloe's side, second half is Beca's stage version._

* * *

"Beca, let me in!"

"Nope."

"Beca…"

"Get the fuck away from my fucking door, asshole."

Chloe heard the scene from around the corner. Dr. Mitchell was pounding on a dorm room door, and by the responses, it didn't seem to be just any student he wanted to see.

"Dr. Mitchell?"

He turned around at Chloe's questioning statement. He smoothed his tie, ran a hand over his thinning hair, and pulled together a smile.

"Just trying to talk to my daughter."

"Oh… okay. See you in class."

Chloe remembered seeing someone who looked like Dr. Mitchell walking around campus, head down, avoiding everything. Then she saw her at the club, spinning. Then she saw her peer out from her dorm room door, checking both ways before escaping to the sanctuary of the radio station. The same one Chloe listened to every day during her morning run.

No, she wasn't spying. She was just very good at recognizing voices. And faces. And the way Beca walked with more weight on her right foot, probably from always lugging her laptop around. Again, not spying. Just noticing the thick laptop with padded headphones and scary ear spikes that Chloe was afraid of accidentally bumping into for fear of being impaled.

On her way to class, she noticed some other kid trying to show Beca a magic trick. Beca feigned enthusiasm, clearly lost in her own world of thought. Chloe debated rescuing her. But something told her that wouldn't work out for the best.

"Keep it in your pants," Chloe told herself every time she passed the dangerous character.

It didn't stop her from finding Beca's multitude of musical awards all over the internet.

Songwriter, singer, can play almost any instrument, and can mash up songs like nobody's business.

But all this with one ambition: to change the face of Broadway.

Chloe's shameless investigation was not all for naught.

She saw Beca at the activities fair.

"Want to join our acapella group?"

Beca looked utterly disgusted at the notion.

"Sorry, I don't even sing."

Chloe knew better than to believe that. She would just have to get creative.

/

The stage lights lit up. Beca Mitchell stood at the center, a laptop bag slung over her shoulder and headphones around her neck.

Chloe flipped to the song list.

ACT I

_Please Don't Stop the Music…Beca and Company_

_ Magic…Beca and Benji_

_ Let it Whip…Jesse, Benji, and the Treblemakers_

_ Titanium…Chloe and Beca_

_Since U Been Gone…Company_

_ Cups…Beca_

_ Open Season…Beca, Jesse, Chloe, and Company_

_Riff-Off…Company_

ACT II

_ Bellas Regionals (The Sign, Eternal Flame, Turn the Beat Around)…The Barden Bellas_

_ Bright Lights Bigger City…Beca and Jesse_

_ Hallelujah…Chloe and Beca_

_ Cups (reprise)…Beca and Chloe_

_ Open Season (reprise)…Beca_

_ Titanium (reprise)…Beca and Chloe_

_ Since U Been Gone (reprise)…Company_

Seeing her name so many times scared her. But she shoved the playbill under her legs and looked back up at the stage.

"I fucked up." Three words and the show was launched into an explosion of lights and dancing. The opening song kicked off, sending Beca into a whirlwind. Guitars, recording equipment, people trying to barge in, and Beca pushing them out. Beca spinning at clubs. Guys grinding on her. Beca literally shoving them out of the way to get to the other end of the stage, only to turn around and watch the club imitation thrill the audience.

Beca returned to center stage, and the music came to a halt. The dancers froze.

"High school was okay. But college is… College is where your life really starts. I came into it knowing what I wanted to do. I wanted to make music. There was a… magic quality about it."

As if on cue (actually entirely and purposefully on cue), Benji's character strode onto the stage.

Fucking fantastic secondary character introduction and development.

Beca smiled, knowing that in two songs she already had the entire audience at her mercy.

The lights swirled around the stage and Beca took her cue. The ensemble took control of the set, bringing in booths for the activity fair while the Trebles gathered in front of a half wall.

_"Give me just a minute of your time of night_."

The Trebles filled the background, just quiet enough so that Beca could do her thing.

"Activity fair. Same as high school, only bigger." Beca's short quip ended with six words.

"Want to join our acapella group?" The bright red hair and blue dress almost drew Beca out of the show.

"This is a thing now, right?" Beca was all too familiar with what she was saying. Doing the show was therapeutic for her, letting her run through the weirdest few years of her life and see them all over again.

She turned to the audience.

"I wouldn't admit it then, but that girl would change my life. The thing is, though, I haven't seen her in years."

A beat.

"But I will say I did at least get to see her naked."


	3. Chapter 3

_Next chapter or two will have fluff, so there's that. Then angst. Then more angst. Be prepared._

* * *

The shower was warm. Man, it was hard to breathe.

Although that wasn't just due to the hot, humid air.

Part of it was her nerves.

Part of it was the person she was staring at.

"Were you singing _Titanium_? That song's my jam… my lady jam."

Wow. That actually happened. She actually just said that.

"Ew."

Not making progress.

Chloe raised an eyebrow.

"Sing it."

No response.

"I'm not leaving until you sing."

So the song happened. They sang. It seemed like the spare drops of water hung in the air to listen. It was still hard to breathe. Chloe's chest tightened, but her voice loosed up. Shower singing was good singing.

But then it ended. And Chloe left.

Aubrey told her not to get her hopes up.

"Look, Chloe, you're easy to read. You have a major toner."

"Do not!"

"Explain why you're still wet."

That could have been taken way too many ways for Chloe to feel comfortable about continuing the conversation.

"I'm not talking about this. You'll see. She'll come to the auditions and you'll see."

"She doesn't care about you. You showed me everything she's done. She wants more than whatever this is. Do you blame her?"

And that's how their dorm ended up covered in printed papers all raving about Beca's talent and potential, courtesy of Chloe's rampage through everything she owned.

Auditions came and went, and Beca was officially part of the Bellas. Chloe found an opening for a move after their first rehearsal. They were the only two left, everyone else having gone to lunch like it was their last chance to eat for the rest of their lives.

"Let's grab lunch." Not leaving any room for questioning was Chloe's specialty.

/

"The shower, I mean, that was amazing," Beca said, wrapping a towel around herself. From Chloe's position, Beca cold have actually been naked. But it was all staging.

"Chloe just barged in, and then she waltzed out of my life. It was up to me to do something next."

The ensemble came back out.

"_Since you been gone, I can breathe for the first time_."

The light harmonies filled the theatre. Sets moved. People found chairs on stage, others stood opposite.

"_I'm so moving on, yeah yeah_."

Three people took to the stage on the stage and belted to rest of the song, accompanied by Beca's singing from center stage. The last chords rang out, and Beca turned on her heel and looked at the stage.

"There's one more."

Beca took the cup, now with a very dirty rim from years of use, sat down, and began her song.

"_You're gonna miss me when I'm gone_."

That was how it happened. Switching from one part to the other so fast that it was hard to know when anything was happening. Yet the audiences loved it. It connected to them in a way that other things didn't. Beca knew it. With the direct addresses to the audience and the pacing, nothing could have worked better.

"So I got in." Beca rolled up her sleeves and stood up from her place on the ground. "And all of these girls are excited, and all I can think is that I joined a cult. Chloe was there. It's sad to say that she was my first friend on campus, considering how all that came about."

From her seat in the back of the theatre, Chloe raged. It was all true, what they said. It was all true. The theatre felt warmer than it should. It was either from all the dancing or the rekindled hatred. Probably both.

It wasn't until then that Chloe noticed the blonde hair that bobbed in and out of view from the orchestra pit. That and the mop of brown hair that she could just barely see off stage. It was all true. But they lied, too. Intermission seemed too far away.

"Anyways," Beca continued, "I got to know Jesse. Chloe was still around. Bellas took up a lot of time. Just like always, though, I avoided everything. But I did start to try at one thing. Chloe."

The sets rotated again, now showing the Bellas rehearsal space sans the other Bellas.

"Hey, Beca, want to grab lunch?"

"Um," Beca turned back to the audience. The people on the stage froze behind her. "I think? Maybe? I mean, I have to get out more, right? That's how people get ideas. Okay." She turned back o Chloe. "Okay."

"_I'm so tired of living like a kite_." Beca, Jesse, and Chloe took their respective places and wandered around the stage. Beca wove between lunch with Chloe and stacking CDs with Jesse. Both Chloe and Jesse continued their activities even when Beca was between them or with the other person.

"_It is all in your mind_."

The ensemble followed suit, wandering around the stage and occasionally bumping into one another. Everyone but Chloe and Jesse had a dazed look plastered across their face.

"I started to crave her company. It brought music to my head. I had too many ideas to work with. I could feel my own musical coming together."


	4. Chapter 4

_So sorry this chapter took so long to put up. School and stuff happened. Updates will come faster now, though._

* * *

"Are you getting ready for the Riff-off?"

Chloe would never admit that she was spying. Never.

Regardless of what she would admit, Chloe was spying.

But it wasn't her fault. Jesse stole her away for an impromptu movie lecture and juice pouch extravaganza.

So, she followed. Hearing about the Riff-off reminded her that if she didn't meet with Aubrey for their "meeting" in ten minutes, her ass was going to be riffed-off.

Silently steaming about Jesse, Chloe stormed into her dorm and flung herself down on her bed. Lucky for her, Aubrey was already in place to start planning. As usual.

"Chloe, get your head out of your ass and take a look at this. I have all the categories, and a starting song. I need you to come up with at least two other songs, with very different lyrics, for each category. Cool?"

Chloe rolled her eyes, familiar with the drill.

"Yeah. Sure."

Beca wasn't as excited as he others when the Riff-off came, but she got into it. Really into it. She came in rapping and left on the metaphorical shoulders of the crowd, regardless of the shameful victory the Trebles had claimed. Chloe had watched as Beca lit up when she explained how it worked. She paid close attention to the way Beca walked around the empty pool, taking in her surroundings like a pro.

Chloe had no doubt in her mind that Beca was someone who was born to be something more.

After Aubrey's universally ignored instructions to list what went wrong finished taking up valuable mental space in Chloe's mind, Chloe walked up to Beca.

"Hey, you did great."

"Thanks. I kind of thought you guys would be pissed if I started rapping, so…" Beca rubbed the back of her neck and smiled sheepishly. "I guess it went well. For the most part."

"Yeah. Want to hang out? I, uh, I can't stand to be around Aubrey after this, you know? I mean, no. I actually- wait. Hold on."

Chloe rubbed her eyes with the tips of her fingers. She heard Beca chuckling, but then something made her freeze.

An arm draped over her shoulder.

"I get it. It's hard to be around someone who thinks they failed and they make everyone else feel bad for it. My dad does the same thing. I get it."

Chloe didn't know how to respond. Somehow her awkward conversation skills turned the situation much softer. Soft like Beca's hand holding her shoulder. Soft like her elbow cradling her neck. Soft like the way Beca spoke; the way only Chloe heard and had never even thought would exist.

Soft like Beca's supposedly hard edges. Cautious but tender. Wary then comfortable. Welcoming. Inviting. Chloe couldn't place the feeling. She just felt let in.

Beca's dorm room was filled with posters and CDs and more than a person's fair share of flannel shirts. One pair of dirty sneakers sat by the door, although nearly falling apart at the seams. Photo booth strips lined a shelf, each one featuring a different assembly of people.

"Who are they?" Chloe was well aware that she was prying. It didn't stop her.

"Oh, those. I always tried to find people on my train who were going to see whatever show I was seeing downtown. I tried to be friends with them, see if they were going to sit by me in the theatre. Then we would stop by the photo booth in the train station. It became a thing. Anyone seeing a show would try to find me and get a picture with me. Even some of the actors tried to find me after the show to do it."

"Wow." It seemed unusual to Chloe that Beca would have been outgoing or even open to strangers like she must have been to get all those pictures.

"Yeah. I miss that."

Chloe sat on Beca's bed and watched as Beca fumbled with her CDs and eventually gave up.

"Couldn't decide between Memphis, RENT, Spring Awakening, West Side Story, Next to Normal, Shrek, and…"

"You really are into all that, aren't you? Like, a lot?"

Beca shrugged, tossed a few CDs onto her bed, and sat next to Chloe.

"Maybe."

"Maybe you can tell me your favorite."

"Maybe I can't pick."

Chloe chuckled. Beca's smug face was just too much to take in one sitting,

"Then let's find out the hard way."

Within seconds, half of Beca's music library was open on her computer and playing in alphabetical order.

"It's sad that I know every word to all these," Beca mumbled, nodding along to the music.

"It's not sad, it's…" Chloe contemplated her next move.

"Don't you dare."

"It's adorable."

Chloe didn't see what happened next. A pillow hit her face and blocked her view, but she felt Beca's laughter shake the bed.

/

"Riff-off. It was great. Rules: match a word, keep the song going. You join in, you can't cut off. You face the Trebles, you're most likely going to lose." Beca grabbed the microphone from actor-Jesse's outstretched hand and strutted over to the Bellas.

"And the category is…"

Beca grinned. This was where it all went down. The spinner was actually random. They had every slot planned out.

"Songs about sex!"

The cast recording had the original songs from the real Riff-off. Those who bought it would get a nice treat, although be disappointed at the lack of surprise.

The songs went fantastically. Better than ever, even. Beca's rap flowed so well that actress-Aubrey almost blew a gasket trying to move the scene along.

"I knew this was my chance to show my stuff, to really get what I wanted. I mean, yeah, Jesse was pretty pissed that I cut him off, but it was worth it." With that, Beca turned to face the rest of the Bellas. The spotlights focused.

Chloe retched at the fake coloring. Tears welled up in her eyes and she pressed her feet into the carpeting to stop from shaking.

Beca turned again to the audience.

"I know this is hard to hear, Chloe, but it's true. Stuff got fucked up. But this was the beginning."

The Riff-off picked back up, with Beca finishing the rap and all eyes focused on center stage.

"I'm sorry ladies, but the word you had to match was 'it,' and you sang 'it's.'"

A guitar sounded off. The lights went out, all except one. Benji was just visible on the "edge" of the pool, watching. After exactly five and a half seconds, that light went out.

Two seconds later, the lights came back on to an empty stage.

Intermission.


	5. Chapter 5

No one moved from their seats. Chloe tried to block out the applause surrounding her. She could just picture Beca lounging backstage, easily distanced from the story she was telling.

But Chloe was in a quite different position.

Everyone around her was standing, applauding. She couldn't hear the orchestra finishing off the song. The family next to her shook the entire row with their jostling.

"That Chloe… I wonder what she does to Beca…" the woman next to her said. The general consensus among the family was nods and sighs.

No one seemed to notice Chloe's bristling anger in the crowded space.

She stood up, gathered her bag under her arm, and headed to the lobby. The merchandise line was no longer a line but a mob, filled with over-enthusiastic fanatics throwing bills at the poor man behind the booth just to get a keychain or a magnet, while others slammed wads of money onto the glass top and walked off with a sweatshirt and poster. Chloe avoided that mess, instead favoring the calmer crowd that surrounded the bar.

"Cheapest alcohol you got." Chloe flashed her ID and tossed her credit card onto the counter. The woman behind the counter took it, filled a plastic cup with what seemed to be beer, and turned to another customer.

With a sigh, Chloe downed the glass in one go. Living with Fat Amy did have its advantages.

The throng of people by the merchandise started to disperse, and Chloe saw a program still unpurchased. She left her empty cup at the counter and started rifling around in her pocket for twenty dollars.

"The program."

"Here you go. Enjoy the rest of the show."

Chloe didn't respond.

The cover of the program reminded her of how much pain she left behind and all of the friends she saw disappear little by little. The picture on the front was of Beca and Chloe facing each other, a few feet apart, with the entire ensemble forming a horseshoe around them.

The back page had a short note from Beca.

_I hope you enjoy this show. It took me a lot of pain to go back and rehash all of this. I'm proud of how it came out, and I wouldn't change a word, even if it would mean that it all works out in the end._

_Beginnings are my favorite part. They're before everything goes wrong._

_-B_

As she finished reading, she saw a familiar flash of blonde hair by the bathrooms. She made eye contact with Aubrey for no more than a second, just barely shook her head, trying to say no, and then Aubrey was gone.

This was bad. It was not supposed to be like this. Chloe saw too many bad things happening in her mind of this turned into what she thought it was going to. No, she wasn't ready for that. Beca was a professional. It wouldn't come to that.

The door outside was so close. Chloe ran through her checklist of reasons to leave a show during intermission. She wasn't on fire, wasn't giving birth, and wasn't dying. No family emergencies, although she would probably stay even for that. The three people she would probably leave for were in the theatre.

It was no use.

She was staying until the end.

/

Beca rolled a pencil across the floor with her toe. She expected Chloe to show her face at least during the Broadway run, if not the first tour city. Eight shows a week was hard enough without the frequent reminder of who she lost.

She watched the curtain sway under the air conditioning. It was always too cold.

Beca checked her minimal costume change for the second act. Mostly variations of the same flannel shirt and jeans, but also a blue button down shirt and black pants.

The air was thick with the sweat of over a thousand people in the theatre.

She picked up the pencil and tossed it into an open drawer. She was not one too keep spaces neat.

Beca still had all of her photo booth strips tucked away in a box in he corner of her dressing room. On top, she piled her normal clothes, which sometimes got mixed up with her stage clothes, although no one could tell the difference. Her Bellas scarf poked out under the mass of clothes, put away somewhat so that it wasn't painful but obvious enough so that she could grab it if she forgot her replica for the show.

She never did forget. But she kept it there, just in case, along with the pictures and scraps of paper with ink stains filled with ideas and the stub from the first ticket they sold.

The lights dimmed then returned to normal.

She got up and walked over to meet Jesse just barely out of view of the audience to the left of the stage. From there, Beca could see the house lights starting to be blocked out by the mob of people rushing to find their seats.

A few feet away, Aubrey was running towards her. No, the pit. She had to be going to the pit. Beca had a rule. She was okay with a lot, but this was her one rule. Don't mess with her before going on stage. But Aubrey was looking right at her, mouth partially open and ready to talk. She was waving around a program, trying to get Beca to meet her halfway.

Before Aubrey could reach her, Beca turned to Jesse and held out a hand.

"Go for it." Jesse smiled, handing Beca her laptop bag and nodded to his actor counterpart.

"Let's smash this."


End file.
